Hounslow council is refusing to offer a home to a young mother despite making a catalogue of errors which left her homeless and sofa surfing while pregnant.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has recommended London Borough of Hounslow offer the woman and her baby its next available suitable accommodation, because its errors meant she missed out on a number of secure tenancies.

But the local council is refusing to co-operate.

The woman first approached the council in May 2022 as she had been sofa surfing with friends. Over a number of months, Hounslow council:

• Told her she was on the council’s top Band 0 list for a home, despite this banding not existing
• Told her applying as homeless would reduce her chances of getting secure housing
• Asked her to complete five separate questionnaires without being allocated a housing officer
• Failed to respond to numerous requests for information
• Told her that moving out of area would not affect her application, despite this then disqualifying her from its housing register, and leaving her unable to apply to the housing register in her new borough because she has not lived there long enough
• Failed to deal properly with her subsequent complaints

The Ombudsman’s investigation into the woman’s complaint found the council failed to make any inquiries into her homelessness situation.

If it had assessed the woman’s homelessness application when it should have done, evidence shows it would have found she was ‘eligible, homeless, and in priority need’, and it should have provided her with interim accommodation immediately, but it did not. The Ombudsman found it likely the council would have accepted the main housing duty – and so provided her with temporary accommodation (a two-bedroomed self-contained property after the child was born) which would have come with its own right to an appeal, but it did not.

The council also gave the woman incorrect information that led her to believe a homelessness application would negatively impact her position on the list for a social housing tenancy. It told her that any interim and temporary homeless accommodation would likely be outside the borough to discourage her from applying. The Ombudsman found the council did this to avoid its legal duties to the woman as a homeless person.

The investigation also found the council took 77 weeks too long to assess the woman’s housing application. If it had considered her application in time, she would have been able to join the housing register. If it had dealt with her homelessness properly, this would have entitled her to Band 2 priority. The investigation found the woman missed out on several properties offered to people who applied after her.

Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, Ms Amerdeep Somal said:

“Hounslow council has left a vulnerable mother and her child without the security of knowing where she would call home at a particularly desperate time of her life. As a young pregnant person she has been forced to sofa surf despite clear evidence the council owed her a duty.

“All this has had a significant effect on her. She moved into one-bedroom shared accommodation shortly before she gave birth, and remains there to this day. All the evidence shows that if Hounslow had acted correctly, the woman would have had the safety of a social tenancy when her child was born.

“I am disappointed that, by rejecting my recommendation to offer her the next suitable property it has available, the council is failing to fully accept the gravity its incorrect advice and practice has had on this woman and her child.

“I now call on local councillors in Hounslow to do the right thing and accept the recommendation I have made to house her as soon as possible.”

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman remedies injustice and shares learning from investigations to help improve public, and adult social care, services. In this case the council should make the woman a direct offer of the next available two-bedroom property that meets her needs, to recognise the missed opportunity to be allocated permanent housing.

The council has not agreed to this recommendation.

The council has, however, agreed to apologise and pay the woman a combined £3,750 to recognise the time she spent in unsuitable accommodation outside the borough and the distress and frustration caused by its failings.

Article date: 17 April 2025